Apparatus for measuring distance



1,678,560 H. G. DORSEY' ET AL APPARATUS FOR MEASURING DISTANCE 1 July24, 1928;

Filed Nov. 12, 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 lNVENTORS 5 Robert L. WlY/lJ/MS ATra Herbert G, Dorsey Md I H. G. DORSEY ET AL APPARATUS FOR MEASURINGDISTANCE .July 24, 1928;

4 Sheets-Sheet [pill awwnwunua 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 Filed Nov. 12, 1925 s a R mY 7 .E mmaw m fi wm ND.W T G MA L 8 w 5 Z m b 0 H R July 2 192s;

\ H. G. DORSE Y ET AL APPARATUS FOR MEASURING DISTANCE.

4 Sheeis-Sheet 5 Filed Nov. 12, 1925 Y mwm mm M vo flwm w m t v w w w wJuly 24, 1923; 1,678,560

H, G. DORSEY ET AL APPARATUS FOR mmsunma DISTANCE Filed Nov. 12, 1925 4Sheets-Sheet 4 D Fly 6 IN V EN TOR.

Her-barf Grove Donre y Robert L. W17! [4 ms gM-U/w ATTO EY.

2 Figure 3 shows a detail of the apparatus.

mas July 24,1

HERBERT enovE DORSEY, or eLoucEsrEn,

AND ROBERT LONGFELLOW OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNORS TO SUBMABINESIGNAL CORPORATION, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.I

APPARATUS FOR unusual-Ne msrancn:

Application filed November-12 1925. Serial No. 68.6%.

Y The present inventionrelates to improvements in apparatus fordetermining distance and more, particularly. to improvements inapparatus as disclosed in the copending patent applications of HerbertGrove Dorsey, Serial No. 682,243 filed December 22, 1923 and RobertLongfellow Williams, Serial No. 686,922 filed January 17, 1924. p

More particularlythe present invention. combines in one apparatus themethods and apparatus of the above two applications. This application,however, does not claim the T specificfeatures of draft adjustment andthe adjustment for length of sound, which features are claimed in thecompanion application of Herbert Grove Dorsey filed the same date as thepresent application. Other features of. the present invention will belearned from the following description and drawing in which-:'

Figure 1 shows a view of the apparatus looking down from the top.

Figure 2 shows a side view of the apparatus of Figure 1.

\ Figure 4 shows another detail..- Figure 5 shows a front view of theapparatus showing certain details.

Figure 6 shows a side view of a detail of .Figure 5 on the lines'ik-fi;

Figure 7 shows a detail of the switch; mechanism of Figure 5 on the line7-- Figure 8 shows in diagrammatic form the elements and wiring of thecircuit. In determining distances or depths of. water by acousticmethods such as employed in the present'application it is foundadvantageous to use other methods for short depth and distances than fordeeper depth 4 and,distan'ces.' The inventors have found that for themost part the signal returning from deep water is weaker than the signalreturning from shallowwater. Consequent 1y, to measure deep depthsmuchmore sensitive receiving and indicating apparatus is necessary than forshallow depths. On the other hand, the degree of accuracy required inshallow water measurement is far greater than indeep water measurement,with the result that for deep water a rather sensitive butsomewhatinaccurate system will operate to give practical results, while forshallow water the apparatus need not be extremely sensitive but must beextremely accurate.

It has been found possible in rather shale low water cause the echoreceived to'opcrate an mdlcating device rendering the indication of thedepth automatic with ex-.

tremely accurate results. However, without tremendous'amplification itis impossible to operate the same type of apparatus for deep water, -yetbybeing' satisfied with "fair ac-- curacy deep depths can be simplymeasured.

The inventors have recognized the inherentdifliculties of using the sameapparatus for all depths and have combined in one sys tem apparatuswhich is particularly eficientand practical to" operate" for all depths.in combining properly the most advantageous methods in one apparatus,certain features have to be cared for particularly. For instance, infinding deep depths in soundings upon a. vessel the slight error,introduced by fore, the change'of the distance which the change of thedraft of the vessel and, theremeasuring apparatus is below the surfaceof the water, is a very small fraction of the total depth and would not,therefore, ordinarily need to be corrected. For shallow depths however,this error becomes important since being a constant amount, in

proportion to the total depth it becomes a greater fraction as thetotaldepth decreases.

7 Since in the present device the same mechanism rotates both shallowwater and deep water indicators, a means of correction must be providedwhich will correct the shallow water indicator independently of the deepwater indicator, as will he seen later from the description andoperation of the apparatus. While, of course, it. is desirableto correctboth indicators it will be noted in the disclosure below that theshallow water indicator must be corrected independently of thedeep waterindicator.

The deep water indicator rotates at slower speed than the shallow waterindicator and as will be seen in the present design consequently thesound signal emitted for determining deep water depths islonger thanthat for shallow water. However, even this additional length of theacoustic note has not been found long enough so that an additionalmechanism is use whereby an extra long signal is obtained. As it isdesirable to accomplish the chan 'ng from the employment of one metho tothe employment of it is desirable make the change without ceasingoperation of the machine. Special means must, therefore, be employed totake care of all contingencies which might arise in the horizontal shaft3 by means of the other end of the slot 15. As

beveled gear 4 meshing with the gear 2. A longitudinally adj list-ableshaft 5 movable in bearings 6 and 7 carries a collar 8 fixed firmly tothe; said shaft-5. The collar 8 is integral with a forked piece 9, thetwo prongs, 10 and 11, of which rest easily in a groove 12 (see Figure2) of the piece carrying the shifting gears Band 14. vThese shiftinggears are made of one piece of material or rigidlyfastened together andare adjustable lon itudinally upon the shaft 3 by means of a Eey (notshown) fitting into the has been stated above the shaft 5 is movablelongitudinally in the bearing 6 and 7. Stops 16 and 17 are provided tolimit the motion of this shaft which may be either fixed or adjustable.The end of the shaft 5 carries a slotted collar 18 through which is astud 19 which straddles a fork 20 of the piece 21. -The pic e 21 isshown rather plainly :in Figures and 7. It is shaped somewhat like thesector of a circular disc and pivoted as shown at in a bearing 31.r Theknurled knob 32 through the side wall 33 of the case controls not onlythe action'of the pivoted sector 21 but also the electric switch 34 andthe shaft 35 controllin the cam changing mechanism.

As s own in'Figure 5 the knurled knob 32 operates through a bearing 36to which the stationary part 37 of the switch is rigidly attached bymeans of the an le 38. he

part 37 is rigidfir supported by. the angle 39 while the angle 40, alsor1 'dly sitioned carries the bearin 31 in wt t g ch t e piece 21' ispivoted. The movable part 41 of the switchqhas an angle at each end 42and 43, the angle42 being ri 'dl attached to the shaft 44 of the knur edob 32 so that by turning the knob 32, the knife blades 45 of the switch34 would contact with the spring forks on the right or left,

,depending whether. r tation of the knob was clockwise or counterclockwise.

j and 7. -As shown inFigure gages further the forked The angle 43carries a stud 45 which is attached in any suitablemanner .in the slot46 as shown both in F1-gures2 5 the slot enpiece 47 bearing upon theprongs of the latter when 0 rating the ,cam switching device about tode-v scribed.

The-cam switching shaft 35 is pivoted in bearing 48. and 49 best shownin Figure 5 but also shown in Figure 1. Pivoted with this I to theangle'43. This stud extends through the piece 21 J cam shaft, as an axis, isthe piece 50 which consists of a hollow cylindrical piece" 51 throu hwhich the shaft 35 passes, but not 1061185 thereto, and a forked piece52, the cylindrical piece and forked iece being cast in one. The ends ofthe for ed pieces contain rollers 53 and 54 which engage in a groove 55in the cam 61. As the piece 50 is not rigidly secured to the shaft 35,rotation of the shaft would notnlove the forked cams 53 and 54 if itwere not for the spring 57. This spring is rigidly secured at one end tothe shaft .35 by the locking piece 58 while the other end is bent aroundthe neck of the piece 50. When, therefore, the shaft 35 is turned, theforked piece will follow on account of the spring 57 unless there issome resistance to prevent its motion, as when the shoulder of the dog59 and the roller '60 happen to be-adjacent to each other. This happensrather rarely but is a contingency which must be cared for else it mayat times be impossible to shift the cam.disc 61'longitudinally upon theshaft 62. It is evident, of course, in order to provide a longer'contactby means of the do 59 than of the dog 63 "that the dog59 'will Es raisedat the ends v above thedog63. Since the same roller 60 is used tocontrol t e contacts for o crating the sound signal, it is necessary inc anging from the short tothe long signal to shift will turn its fullangular rotation tensioning the sprin 57 which will have enough energy 0force t 0 dog 59 in line with the roller 60 when the dog has movedbeyond its striking position. i

The cam disc 61 fitsloosely upon the shaft 62 and is rotated in thefollowing manner:

disc 64 is provided which is rigidly i fix ed to the shaft of studs 65and 66 which ass through holes in the disc 61 and are sufficient inlength to care for the longitudinal shift of the cam ,disc'61. F

As will be evident from the above descri 62. This disc hasa couple 1gears 13 and 14 which when moved to the i left in Figure 2 givethe shaft62' an id motion and when moved to the right a s ow motion when theapparatus is in operation.

The shaft 62 barnes with it the disc-64 which is coupled through thestuds 65 and 66 tothe cam disc 61. The shaft 62 also rohates theindicator disc 70 bearingv both the shallow water. indicator 71 and thedeep water indicator72. The indicatin rigidly'attached to the shaft. 62and the disc is composed of two parts,- one a sector 3 which disc 74which'is adjustably coupled to the sector 73 by means of the thum screw75 which passes through an arcuate slot 76 of the sector so thattheposition of the disc relative. to the sector andtherefore tothe dogsof the cam 61 may be adjustable within the angle necessary as will beseen later.

The sector. 73, carries a small light 77 positioned behind a slit 7 8 inthe sector, which 'slot 78 in the sector.

\ The indicator 71 is fixed behind a slit (not shown) in the disc 74:.This slit is covered 0 a red translucent material through w ich the liht of the indicator 71 shines when the in icator operates. The leads 80and 81 of the indicator 71 are brought to the brushes 82 and 83'respectively and those of the light 72 to the brushes Seand 83 by meansof the leads 85 and 86. The brush 83 serves therefore as the com-- menof the two indicators.

These brushes bear upon the concentric rings 87, $8 and 89 in therelation shown in Figure'li.

Upon the back of the disc 74 are graduations shown in Fi ure 4 from Oto7. The edge of the sector 3 is set upon the correct figure correspondingto thecdraft of the vessel. A half'circle is cut out of the sector sothat the figures may be more readily visible. It will be noted ofcourse, that since the sector is fixed relative to the cam dogs, the

adjustment is applicable only to the shallow water indicator 71. Thearrow inl igure 4 indicates the direction in which the disc rotates. Thedog 90, in Figure 4 which corresponds in position to the dogs 59 63 anddiagrammatically stands for them, shows that the contact 91 whichcontrols the operation of the sound emitter through the leads 92 and 93is closed at relatit sly the same times with respect to the indicator 72but at diflerent times relatively to the indicator 71 dependent uponthe.pos ition of the sector 73.- ur s a, it is' evident that the indicator71 has just passed the zero position as shown by the mark at the top ofthe inner scale upon the dial face 94 when the draft correction is setfor 6 fathoms draft correction which,

ofcourse, may correspond to six fathom corwhen the sender and receiverare far down J. All the relative positions shownin F ga lithium" betweenthe sound transmitter and the sound receiver. It may be noted at leastthat this correction is along the right direction, since beneath the.surface the time interval meas l0 urement is shorter than the actualdepth so that if true depths were to be indicated it would be necessaryto have the indicator already beyond its zero mark when the signal isgiven. As a matter of fact there are a number of corrections to be caredfor, as for instance, the initial lag in the sending circuit, thatin'the receiving circuit, and the correction for thespacing of thesender and receiver, as regards increasing depths.

ihe initial lag of operation and receiving will tend to make the depthsappear deeper than they really are, since the .time interval between thesending and the receiving will be longer than the time taken for thesound to travel to the bottom and back. The distance between receiverswith respect to depths to be measured will also tend to make depthsappear deeper. This last correction is cared for by the particularcalibration of the scale for shallow water as is seen'by the mzfrking onthe inner scale 95. It may be observed that this; correction decreasesas the depth increases, since for deepdepths the distance between thesender and receiver is small when compared to the depth, and the actualvdistance measured comes very close to being the actual depth since thepat of travel of the sound is almostin a'vertical direction For depthscalibrated upon the we second scale 96 which commences at the bottom ofthe dial at the outside, boththe draft correction and the spacingcorrection of the sender and receiver are unnecessary since the error isapproximately small coninos pared to; the depth. For proper measur'ment, therefore, there is provided ameans tor correcting the innerscale and measurements as has been outlined above without adjustment ofthe outer scale or depth assono ciated with those measurements.

be used for much'deeper depths as well,

to operate the indicator.

As will be learned from the other copending applications mentionedabove,the shallow water indicator is entirely automatic. The echo signal beingrecieved upon a re-. 12o ceiver operatesthe indicator which 'in' thepresent application is shown asa neon discharge tube 7D This indicatoris constant- 1y rotated bya motor (not shown) through the shaft 1, whichis geared to the shaft 62. As shown in Figure 4 and in otherfigures,when the dog ,59 or 63 or its diagrammatical equivalent .90 of Figure 4gets into the proper position, the sound emitter 208 is sounded by thegenerator 207.-

provided the echo signal is suficiently strong 115 This normally hap- I,response in the telephone 200 in such a man- I ner that the operatormay place. the position of the indicator 72 if the deep depth method isused as described in the Williams application mentioned previously.

In the resent application the apparatus involved in producingthe'operation of the automatic indicator 71 has been called theautomatic means for indicating shallow water depth since the indicationis given automatically and requires of the operator the mere noting ofthe position of the flash upon the dial 95. In the operation for deepdepth, however, while the operator is not. required to perform, anymanual operation of setting an indicator or of picking up a signal andmoving an adjusting device, he is required to synchronizethe beat of thereturning echo with the position of the rotating indicator 72, and thusthe operat on while not fairly described as automatic has been describedas semi-automatic. "This is in substance the method employed in theWilliams application 686,922mentioned previously., I

\ Figure 8 shows diagrammatically the operation of the system as awhole. Instarting the operation of the sounding appara'-- tus the switchto the supply 1s closed thus driving the motor I 303 which drives themechanismfor rotating the indicators 71 and 72. 'If the circuit is, asshown in Figure 8, which is the position when the motor is running idle,the resistance 302 is in series with the motor armature and the motortherefore runs slower than'normal speed.

The blades 45 as shown in Figure 5 are mounted on a single switch. Inoperating for deep depth indications, these blades are connected to thecontacts on the left. The first blade on the left serves to light theindicator 72 in this position, the second throws the phones 200 incircuit and the third cuts out the resistance 302 allowing the motor tocome up to speed. The' mechanism for operating the sounder is shownillustratively by the cam 61 which carries the rises shownat its top forclosing the contact to operate the sounder. The button shown as 97corresponds'with 97 of Figure 5. When 97 is pressed the circuit to thesounder 208 is. held open in spite of the at tion of the rises on thecam 61. v

It may be remarked, however, that there is a" possibility that the depthmay be so deep when the shallow water indicator isused that the signalwill not return before the next signal is being'sent. If this condiotherend the disc contact 103 which is opposed to the contact 104 which ispushed to the right in Figure 5 by the roller 60 When the dog 59 or 63hits it. To make the operation of the electrodes 104 and 103 very rapid,spring 110 is used- When electrode 104 is forced to the right, thespring 110 is tensioned so that it will have a tendency to fly back toits normal position. The spring 111 tends to hold the contact 103' inits" .proper position as well as to return it to such a'positionas soonas possible after the key 97 is released. To prevent operation of thesound emitter, the key 97 is pressed when the dog is about to force thecontact 104 to the right. In this manner as many revolutions of theindicator can pass byxas desired without emitting a signal.

In using this key with shallow depths, if one revolution has passedbefore the signal comes in, it will sim 1y be necessary to add to thereading which is obtained; if two revolutions, 200; and so forth. Thesame method is applicable to deep depths, except that inithis 1000is'added for each revolution.

The operation should be fairly obvious from the description above. Ifthe shallow water indicator is to be used the light 72 is notilluminated in which'c'ase no indicator will normally be visible toanobserver looking at the dial. In Figures .1 and 2 the gears 14 and 13are shifted to the left so that gear 14 meshes with the small gear 105so that the shaft 62 is driven at the higher speed. This shift isaccomplished by the knobv 32 which rotates the arm 21 .in a

counter-clockwise direction shown in Figure 2. At the same time the stud45 is moved to the right in a counter-clockwise direction as shown inFigure 2 untilthe stud bears against the shoulder of the piece47 (Figure7) and rotates the shaft 35 clockwise as viewed from the end shown inFigure 7.

proper contacts to change over the indicator,

1 At the'same time the switch blades make the slow the-speed of themotor while throwing I i in ears and -make other changes which mi? t benecessary.)

. f deep depths are desired the knob 32 is turned in t e oppositedirection which meshes the gear 13 with the gear 106 there by causingthe disc, indicator, and cam to rotate at the slower speed and alsopresents awe-m A automatic-method designed to be used for the shallowerdepths laps considerably over the deep depth range. If it happens thatthe shallow Water indicator operates for deep depths it is onlynecessary to press the,

key 97 to extend the range of measurement to any depth without changingto the deeper de th method.

V aving described our invention We claim 1. A system for measuringdepths of water including a rotating member, means for driving the sameat a constant and known speed, a sound producer, a sound receiver, meanswhereby rotation of the ro-' tating member causes periodic operation ofthe sound producer, circular scales, two visual indicatorscarried bysaid rotating member and moving in cooperation with the scales, one ofsaid indicators for deep sounding, the other of said indicators capableof producing a line of light'onthe scale in response to the operation ofthe sound receiver for shallow sounding, an audible indicatin meansoperative in response to operation 0? the sound receiver to cooperatewith the deep sounding indicator, and

means for shifting from operation with the shallow water indicator tothedeep Water indicator or the reverse.

2. A system for measuring depths of to water including a rotatingmember, means for driving the same at a constant and mown speed, a soundproducer, a sound re;

ceiver, means whereby rotation of the rotat-' nginember causes periodicoperation of the as sound producer, circular-scales, two visual vindicators carried by said rotating member and moving cooperation withthe scales, one or said indicators for deep sounding, the other of saidindicators capable of producing' a line of light on the scale in respouse to the operation oi the sound receiver for shallowsounding', anaudible 1ndicating means operative in response to operation of the soundreceiver to cooperate with the deep sounding indicator, and means foroperating said system wlth only one 1ndicator.

indicators capable of producing a line of light on the scale in responseto the operation of the sound receiver for shallow sound-' ing, .anaudible indicating means operative in response to operation of the soundreceiver to cooperate with the deep sounding indicator, and means foroperating said system with only one indicator. 7

LA system for measuring depths of water including. a rotating member,means for driving the same at a constant and known speed, a sdundproducer, a sound re ceiver, means whereby rotation of the rotating'member causes periodic; operation of the sound producer, circularscales, two visual indicators carried by said rotating member and movingin cooperation with the scales, one of said indicators for deepsounding, the other of said indicators ca pable of producing a line oflight on the scale in response to the operation of the sound receiverfor shallow sounding, an audible indicatin means operative in responseto operation 0 the sound receiver to cooperate with the deep soundingindicator, said deep sounding indicator adapted to be continuouslyilluminated, and means for selecting which indicator is to be used.

In testimony whereof we afiix our sigma-- tures.

HERBERT. enova nonsnn nonnar LONGFELLOW 1

